Interactions Between Language and Thinking: A Comparative Study of Persian, English and Chinese Languages

In this research, an attempt has been made to find out the intellectual differences that have originated from occupation, climate and environment, as well as a comparative study of a number of morphological and syntactic structures of Persian, English and Chinese to examine where there is a connection between the thoughts of people and the relations of thought and language in these three languages. In this research, the theoretical framework of linguistic relativity (Sapir, 1997: 36) has been used. The results of this study showed that Chinese speakers and Persian speakers describe the issues in general and emotionally and attach great importance to the group; Therefore, Chinese and Persian languages pay more attention to the meaning outside the language. English-speakers are more proficient in analytical thinking and analyze topics in detail, paying attention to the person and completeness of the sentence in terms of sentence structure. Examining the sentences of these three languages, it was found that the verbs of English and Persian, unlike Chinese, have a time. The non-living subject in these languages can be placed in the position of the subject. Nominal expressions have signs in terms of being known (definite) and or not known (indefinite). But in Chinese, noun phrases have no sign and the non-living subject is not in the position of the subject. Persian language is more similar to English in terms of structure and is more similar to Chinese in terms of thinking and culture.